Jeremiah III: The Character of God | Wednesday Night Service

We are going to tonight. I think it'll be. We've been talking about Jeremiah when I've had an opportunity to minister to you, and I think this will be the last installment. I. Pastor Abe, I am. I'm not going to be in the thickets.

The Lord pulled me out of the thickets of chapter 12. Although I would like to hear what you thought about. Did it have to do with lions and tigers and bears or anything like that? You know, so I had a particular chapter and a direction that I wanted to go tonight, but the Lord kind of pulled me off of it and pulled me into another chapter. And even in this chapter, I had a direction I thought for sure I was heading.

And we are going to go there. But in following that, there were some things that I saw that I hadn't seen before that were quite overwhelming to me and I hope I can communicate those to you. Well, about our father, let me start out with this. I would say that my husband, Michael and I can be rightly described as sensible people. We were raised by sensible parents who taught us the value of practicality just through us watching the way that they lived.

We're not drawn to hare brain schemes or get rich quick or chasing fantasies. That's just not how we're cut. When we gave our lives to Christ, we jumped in with both feet and we decided we were going to live according to the lifestyle that the Bible talks about. Because it made sense to us that the creator of the world and its people would have some insight into how we best could navigate into this world that we were in and we lived in. And our experience of a life of faith and devotion to God has not been at odds with the requirements of daily living.

Right? Yeah. You can be at that level with God and you're still paying your bills and you're still taking out the garbage and you know, life goes on. So you're not floating on the clouds like you. You can be sensible in God for sure.

And yet there have been times when Michael and I have felt God draw us into something that did not make sense. And it's about one of those occasions that I want to talk to you. You know, when the kids were growing up, we vacationed quite a bit at the beach. That was the place that we went. And you know, you always think, oh, wouldn't it be nice to have a place here?

And we were grateful to be able to go on vacation every year. But the notion of buying a place at the beach, that was a whole nother level. That's A whole nother income bracket. So we were content to go. That was fine.

When the circumstances unfolded that precipitated our move from Ohio to South Carolina. First, we had this chunk of money from selling our house in Ohio, and we felt it was sensible to reinvest that money in another real estate purchase. Because even according to the word of God, you should diversify your portfolio or whatever that means. I really don't know, but I think you put it in different places. So when the many waters go out, it comes back.

I don't know how that goes. Anyways, so we assumed we would buy up the house that we would be living in in South Carolina. And it wasn't for lack of trying. But we looked and we looked and we looked and no, no pun intended, the door never opened for us there. So we just banked that money and we rented it.

And honestly, I was talking to Michael about it. I can't remember when the notion occurred to us to buy a place at the beach. And this is so obscure, but at the church we attended in South Carolina, I volunteered at the reception desk and it was me and this other sweet gal. And we just became fast friends. And like, the phone rang once every three hours.

I mean, we're filling bags with children's church. So most of the time we were on the Internet looking at real estate properties. We both liked doing that. And I think she just said to me, you know, you ought to buy a place in at the beach. And I thought, yes, I should.

You know, it just seemed like the thing to do. So I think that's how that unfolded. Well, anyways, the more we considered it, the more it seemed like a really sensible thing to do because Michael was going to retire in like 10 years. We could buy the place, we could derive income from it as a rental. And when the time came that Michael retired, we could just move into it and we'd live our days in the beach, in the sun, like those people that ride those bikes with those helmets on.

Oh, God, I don't think I'd rather get a concussion. Anyways, so we decided to start looking at properties at the beach. And what has become our lot in life is that we look at many, many, many properties and it doesn't make sense because we pray about everything. And our life verse is Proverbs 4, 5, and 6. Trust in the Lord with all your heart.

Lean not on your own understanding, in all your ways, acknowledge him, and he will direct your path to me. The outcome of that is the realtor takes you to the Right place the first time. Shouldn't that be that way? Because, like, I don't get that. But never, never works that way.

So we're, you know, and we're four hours from the place we're looking, and we're driving back and forth and so forth. So anyways, one particular day he took us to see a condominium that was in our price range and to compare to the other properties we had seen.

I think the word dump describes it. It was a dump. And it was a dump in a building where sketchy people lived. And not only that, it was next to an abandoned hotel where drug activity flourished. Well, the unit itself was.

It reeked of smoke and whatever that was bad. And so we knew it was going to have to be gutted. And to do that, I mean, we'd have hire people to do everything. We're not your do it yourselfers kind of people. And we'd have to manage that from four hours away.

And even if we did that, we'd still be in that sketch building next to the meth labs next door. And this is not the way we roll. Despite all of those negatives, we could not get rid of the feeling that we were supposed to purchase that property. And we prayed and prayed, and we both felt that the Lord was saying, you need to buy that property. The absolute worst property possibly on the island.

And that did not make sense. And even when we told our realtor that we wanted to make an offer on that property, he cautioned us, this is how he was so sweet like. And he said. And he talked about it in the abstract. He said, you know, people, a person who would buy this.

This property and put a lot of money to fix it up, we'll never get it back out of it. And he could not wrap his professional mind around the fact that we would buy that property when there were other properties in our price range that we could buy that didn't look like that. Buying that condominium was not sensible by any metric. But we prayed and we committed to the Lord. And we both agreed that buying it was indeed what we are supposed to do.

Despite what we saw with our eyes and heard from our realtor, we both believe that the Lord told us, buy that place. And so we stepped out, truly in faith in his word, and we obeyed him. The first day the property officially went into our names, before we started any kind of renovation. The first day we received a call from the manager of the that property. And, and, and just like Michael and I remember where we were on the day JFK was assassinated and where we were when the planes ran into the Twin Towers.

We remembered where we were when we received that call from our property manager to tell us that the H vac unit in the. The unit we just bought had malfunctioned, had flooded our unit and the unit below us.

And you know, when that happens, you look at your partner and you say, did we make a ghastly, ghastly error here? Which, as a little side venture, is why it's so important for husbands and wives to be in agreement about such things. It really is, trust me. It's a word to the wise. And I think it seems to be a tendency, especially in Christian households, where the husband certainly takes his place as the head of the family and should be acknowledged at that end.

But I will tell you, even if the guys got an MBA from Wharton, Is that a school? And you picked your wife out of the cornfield, she will have insight about what you are to do because you are one flesh and to make a decision without each other. And either way is bad because what will happen is when something goes wrong, oh, it's not going to be just the thing that went wrong. Somebody's going to be to blame for what that went wrong and for what went wrong. And so at least if you are on the same page, you will spare yourself that marital.

Because you're looking at each other and said, I guess we're both dumb. No fight. Anguish. No fight. So, well, nevertheless, I have no idea where I am.

And there I hear, and I found it. Here we go. All right. Oh, and it starts with nevertheless, too. Nevertheless, we went forward, we enacted our plan, and we renovated it.

The renovation process was horrible. If you've ever renovated, remodeled, you know exactly what I'm talking about. It's stuff you don't know how to do. And we had a guy that used our credit card for something else. I mean, it was just a nightmare.

But we finished it and we began renting it out. What transpired in the next few years was nothing less than remarkable. And I could tell you we did not see it coming. Almost every unit in that building was sold and purchased by folks who renovated them. A hotel chain bought the hotel next door and completely remodeled it.

And our building, the hotel next door and that location on the island, it did a 180 in terms of desirability. And five years later, when we decided to sell our unit because it became clear that the Lord's will was not for us to retire on an island, but to retire in Concord, North Carolina, We actually sold it for many times what we paid for it. And I share this story with you as part of a real estate investment seminar. It's not even about money. I share this story because it's about faith.

It's about faith in God. It's about faith in God's word to you. It's about faith in God when it clashes with every sensible bone in our body and defies what we see. And after all, what is biblical faith, right? It's the assurance of what we hope for.

It's the confidence of what we do not see. And our faith is not justified simply by our belief. I have faith. I believe, right? What was that scene from one of the Raiders of the Lost Ark when he had to take the leap of faith, right?

He touched his heart. You know, it would be nice if it came that way, but it does not. Faith in God is always corroborated and demonstrated by a corresponding action. Faith is inextricably linked with obedience. The biblical witness supports that right.

By faith, Abel offered a better sacrifice than Cain. By faith, Abraham obeyed when he was called to live in a foreign land. By faith, Abraham again offered up Isaac in the act of offering up his only son. By faith, the Israelites crossed the Red Sea as on dry land. But can I tell you why God's people hesitate to walk in that kind of faith?

It involves risk. We don't like risk. Sensible people don't take risks. But there is a place of living by faith that the Lord, I think is calling us to tonight. And it's not so that we can have all our prayers answered just the way we want them or always have a good outcome in a situation because, frankly, it's unlikely that's going to happen.

The people that are in the hall of fame of faith, some of them are described as never receiving what was promised or being sawed in half.

He's calling us to partner with him through our faithful obedience in ways far beyond our personal needs.

Now, Jeremiah's actions. Talk about Jeremiah tonight. His actions in the account we're going to look at tonight demonstrates that kind of faith manifested in obedience. And just coincidentally, it involves an insane real estate purchase. So if you will open your Bibles to Jeremiah 32, we'll get to a scripture there in a minute.

I'm going to do a very brief recap, the briefest of recaps you may or may not recall. Jeremiah was commissioned by God at a very young age, less than 20, as a prophet to Israel and a prophet to the nations. Fun Fact, with the exception of Egypt, he never stepped foot in any of the nations about which or to whom he was called to prophesy. I feel like that's something for someone here tonight to think about, that you don't actually have to go to the place God is calling you to speak to. His prophetic ministry lasted 44 years, and it is characterized by three sequential themes.

The first theme is repent.

Repent. From the king to the priest, to the prophets, to the people. Repent. Because if you do not repent from your wicked ways, the Babylonians are going to come in here and they are going to tear this place apart.

Well, he was not heeded, and the window of opportunity closed for them to repent. And the Babylonians did indeed start closing in around Judah and Jerusalem. When the Babylonians grew closer, the second message Jeremiah ministered to them or prophesied to them was yield to the Babylonians. If you will yield to the Babylonians, it will go well with you. Do not fight them.

And it was kind of like being a mother to a toddler that never listens to you, ever. They did not listen. And as a result of them not paying attention, Jerusalem was razed to the ground. And the people living in Judah were either slaughtered or. Or deported to Babylon.

And all of that, all of that could have been prevented had they heeded his words. And the third theme, after everything had fallen apart and was as bad as it could be, was don't despair. Because you know what? The Lord still has plans to give you a hope and a future beyond what you can even imagine. Those were his three themes.

Where we are going to insert ourselves in the story tonight is just before the Babylonians will actually break through the wall and enter into Jerusalem. So you know Jerusalem as a city, its greatest protection was the wall around it. And now the Babylonian army has circled itself all around that wall already. The Babylonians have captured every other city in Judah and deported or killed its citizens. They have burned down every growing thing.

And the final battle then is to take the capital, which is Jerusalem. And where we are right now is just a matter of time before that wall crumbles and the massacre begins. So we're going to pick up in Jeremiah 32, verse one. I'm going to be reading from the ESV, if you want to. A lot of you have devices and you might be able to go to that translation.

Sometimes it's easier just to link up with my words, but however you want to do it is fine. Jeremiah 32. 1. The word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord, in the tenth year of Zedekiah, king of Judah, which was the eighteenth year of Nebuchadnezzar, it is important to know that King Zedekiah was actually put in place as king by King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon. Judah had already been a vassal state under Babylon for quite a few years, and there were a vassal kings.

And in a vassal kingdom, it simply meant that they would leave you alone, the greater power, as long as you just, you kept the peace and you didn't side with their enemies and you usually paid them a lot of money. And unfortunately, the kings of Judah, that was a habit even toward the Assyrians that they paid, leave me alone, I'll pay you instead of going to the Lord. So bottom line is, all Zedekiah had to do to stay in power was do nothing. Just don't let your people get out of hand and everything's going to be fine. Which was exactly what Jeremiah said.

That's what you should do. Thus says the Lord, do not rebel against the king of Babylon. And in their wickedness, they still thought they could take a stand as a righteous people of God. And they could not. They had nothing to stand on.

And so there you had the other prophets who were telling Zedekiah, this is God's place and this is God's temple. And did he not deliver us from the Assyrians? Remember the miraculous hundred thousand soldiers and one angel of the Lord killed? Yes, the Lord shall deliver this place. And Jeremiah's just shaking his head.

He said, no, he's not.

But Zedekiah got in his head, yes, I will be the one that saves. My name's going to go down as the great king of Jerusalem, the great king of Judah. I will save the people. Yeah. He started a chain of events that would unleash death and destruction and be the demise of God's people as a nation.

And if we are in the 10th year of the reign of Zedekiah, it is in the 11th year that it all comes down. So we're one year away from verse two. At that time, the army of the king of Babylon was besieging Jerusalem. And Jeremiah the prophet was shut up in the court of the guard that was in the palace of the king of Judah. The siege process is like slow torture than an atomic bomb.

You know, the opposing military and surrounding the city prevents anything from getting in or out, particularly food. And starvation becomes a problem. In addition, day after day for a year, they could hear the sound of the Babylonian army pounding at that wall.

Day after day after day, no food, and knowing it's a matter of time. Why was Jeremiah imprisoned? Let's go to verse 3. For Zedekiah, King of Judah had imprisoned him, saying, why do you prophesy? So Jeremiah is going to repeat what Zedekiah is going to repeat what Jeremiah's prophecy has been to him.

Why do you prophesy and say thus? Says the Lord, Behold, I am giving this city into the hand of the king of Babylo and he shall capture it. Zedekiah, king of Judah shall not escape out of the hand of the Chaldeans. The Chaldeans is just a section of people who lived in Babylon, but surely shall be given into the hand of the king of Babylon and shall speak with him face to face and see him eye to eye. That was particularly threatening since Nebuchadnezzar himself had put Zedekiah and said, I'm commissioning you to be my servant.

Well now you're going to have to look at him in your rebellion. That's kind of a scary thing. And he shall take Zedekiah to Babylon and there he shall remain until I visit him, declares the Lord. Though you fight against the Chaldeans, you shall not succeed. Jeremiah has been arrested for what amounts to treason.

So you have Zedekiah, who's trying to rally the troops, and then you have Jeremiah, as you know, the party pooper, as it were, and telling him, don't do it, don't do it, don't do it. So Zedekiah grows tired of having to deal with and so he locks him up. And not only does he lock him up, he locks him up kind of in his house so he can keep an eye on what he's doing. So Jeremiah is in prison in the palace guard, right during the siege. I hope you can understand the dire circumstances of Jeremiah and all of Jerusalem.

They are in a day to day survival mode. Nobody's thinking about what am I going to do next Saturday. They're thinking about how am I going to live till tomorrow. And especially Jeremiah, who is a prisoner and who could be executed at any time. Verse 6.

Jeremiah said, the word of the Lord came to me. Behold Hanamel, the son of Shallum, your uncle. That made me think of Qalum. I'm sorry I had to do that. Inside joke.

Shalom. Your uncle will come to you and say, buy my field. That is in Anathoth. The family gave a lith that is in Anathoth, for the right of redemption by purchase is yours. Let me just give you some facts to contextualize this Anathoth is Jeremiah's hometown.

That's where all his family lives. Okay. To redeem a relative's property was to buy it from them in order to keep it in the family. And generally what was happening is you would help a relative out of some kind of indebtedness by buying that property. They would get the money and you would hold on to them.

The goal was to eventually return it to them. Right? So you would protect it.

You would have a right to refuse to be the goel, as they called it. Right. What Boaz did with Ruth. But if you did, I think they took a sandal off, threw it at you and spit at you. I think I read that somewhere.

Yeah. Thank you. My doctorate over here, she confirmed that. Anyways, Jeremiah as a relative of Hanamel, had the right to have that offer to him to buy the land, to keep it in the family under normal circumstances. Okay, these are not normal circumstances.

Jeremiah by now was probably in his 60s, locked up in a city that's under siege. And his cousin comes to him and said, have I got a deal for you. Verse 8. The Lord said, you cousin's coming. The Lord told him, verse eight.

Guess what happened? His cousin comes. Then Hanameel, my cousin came to me in the court of the guard, in the court of the guard, in accordance with the word of the Lord and said to me, buy my field that is at Anathoth in the land of Benjamin, for the right of possession and redemption is yours. Buy it for yourself. Then I knew it was the word of the Lord.

That Hanamel would even approach Jeremiah. To do this kind of thing is clearly an indication of someone who cannot read the room. You understand what I'm saying? It's nutty. It was insane and insensitive to even ask him.

Ask Jeremiah to redeem that property. And I guarantee you that was not lost on Jeremiah. The self serving purpose of Hannah Hanamel's request. Number one, Jeremiah was in prison. What's he going to do with that piece of property?

Second, he had no wife, no children. Who would he pass that property on to? If indeed he did buy, who would take care of that property? He'd have to pay somebody to take care of it. Number three, at that very moment Anathoth is occupied by the Babylonians.

They have already burned everything down. That property doesn't even belong to Hanamel anymore.

And for Jeremiah knew it was going to be desolate for another 70 years. What's the point? This is crazy. Hannah Mel's motivation to ask Jeremiah to Buy that property. It's clear the Lord's motivation to tell Jeremiah to buy that property.

And we're going to find out about that.

As I said, faith is corroborated by obedience. And what we will see in the following verses is that Jeremiah is just. He's not just obedient. He is meticulous in his obedience. Reminds me of two people I see sitting right there who are meticulous in their obedience.

It's an honor. You serve God honorably. You know who I'm talking to?

At this point, all we know for sure is that the word has come to Jeremiah to buy it. That's all he knows. You want me to buy this piece of. That's all he knows, right? Buy this piece of worthless property.

Fine. And you know what he does? He obeys. Verse 9. And I bought the field at Anathoth from Hanamel, my cousin, and look at all this.

And weighed out the money to him. 17 shekels of silver. Okay, how much is 17 shekels? I have no idea. But it's not a lot of shekeling, because Abraham paid 400 shekels a thousand years earlier for a burial plot.

So it's probably all Jeremiah had. Who's going to have a lot of money there, right? Verse 10. I signed the deed, sealed it, got witnesses, and weighed the money on scales. Then I took the sealed deed of purchase containing the terms and conditions of the open copy, and I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch.

Now, these names coming up, I'm just going to Americanize them because I don't feel like wrestling with them and all that stuff. So sorry. And I gave the deed of purchase to Baruch, the son of Neriah, son of Messiah, in the presence of Hanameel, my cousin, in the presence of the witnesses, signed the deed of purchase. And in the presence of all the Judeans who were sitting in the court of the guard, all this proper procedure for a worthless piece of property. And I charged Baruch in their presence, saying, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, take these deeds, both the sealed deed of purchase and this open deed, and put them in an earthenware vessel, that they may last for a long time.

And now, for thus, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land.

Jeremiah's obedience definitely reflected his faith, but the way he obeyed it reflected his character.

He not only obeyed the word of the Lord, he honored the word of the Lord in the way he executed his instructions. He didn't phone it in, you know what I'm saying? He crossed every T and he dotted every I. And I had to examine myself and wonder about the times I have obeyed the Lord but didn't honor him in my obedience. You know, you show up, but you come late, you do what he said, but it's with the scowl.

And honor shines up. Obedience, yeah, it's a beautiful thing to honor the Lord in addition to obey him. And this is just the nature of Jeremiah, but it also seems that it wasn't until Jeremiah completed what the Lord asked him to do that the Lord's purpose for him doing what he did was revealed. In verse 15. Right.

For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, houses and fields and vineyards shall again be bought in this land. If Jeremiah is hearing this for the first time, his actions were a mark of exceptional faith.

What would happen if Jeremiah said no or chose to ignore the word of the Lord?

And I've often wondered if my faith, or lack of it, has prevented me from partnering with the Lord in something that really mattered. Something beyond finding a parking spot.

You see, Jeremiah didn't just purchase a piece of property. He created a written, witnessed, prophetic signpost that pointed to hope in the midst of calamity.

And whether or not that earthen vessel survives with that deed, which it very well made. The Dead Sea Scrolls were preserved in that kind of a thing, and they survived thousands of years. Whether or not that deed survives, the deed survives in the written word of God.

As is quite common, after we take a step of faith, we find ourselves having to wrestle with our doubts. And you know what it's like when you're all jazzed up and in the spirit and you do the thing and then afterward in the rear view mirror, how it looks like.

Well, you know, Jeremiah is just as human as we are. But what is amazing about him is that his questions and doubts were not self centered, which usually ours are. He's not trying to come to terms with the power of God to restore the value to a worthless piece of property so he doesn't lose money on his investment. I don't think that's on his radar screen at all. Jeremiah's the prayer that follows, it reflects him struggling to comprehend the kind of power that God has.

That is really incomprehensible. Now let's look at his prayer, verse 16. After I had given the deed of purchase to Baruch the son of Neriah, I prayed to the Lord. Now if you attended a hand raised in Church back in the last. Back in the late 1980s.

You're going to recognize these words. It was a song. Ah, Lord God, it is you who made the heavens and the earth by your great power. Yeah, that's that. From there.

By your great power and by your outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you. And so Jeremiah's prayer, which will be in verses 17 through 25, begins with a declaration celebration of God's omnipotence. And you have to wonder if Jeremiah had to remind himself of the awesome power of God, which is a great. Which is a great thing to do.

Praise is an antidote to doubt every single time. That's why we praise him. Why so downcast, oh my soul? Put your hope in God. Start declaring the wonders of God.

You believe what you say. I always believe me. Why would I lie to me? You know what I'm saying. So I believe what I hear me say.

You will believe when you praise him. You will believe yourself. But after he praises God's power, he then transitions in his prayer via a visitation to Israel's checkered history, into this exploration and where he is struggling, of this inherent paradox in God. And that is God's relentless love and mercy juxtaposed to his wrath and judgment. How can God be described by terms we consider opposites?

How can he be both? And Jeremiah is wrestling with this. He makes clear that there is no doubt that Israel deserves the judgment that is coming their way. They deserve the wrath and the judgment. They have been historically unfaithful to the Lord and egregiously wicked.

Which leads Jeremiah to end his prayer in verse 25 with kind of an unspoken question. And he says this, after all they've done, yet you, O Lord God, have said to me, buy the field for money and get witnesses. Though the city is given into the hands of the Chaldeans, the core of Jeremiah's questioning reflection in verse 25 is not about him having to pay 17 shekels for a worthless piece of property. And it's even beyond what seems to be the paradox between judgment and mercy. What Jeremiah's mind can't comprehend is how both of those immutable qualities can be manifesting at the same time.

The timing of Jeremiah's purchase of the property is much more than a demonstration of Jeremiah's personal faith in God's word. It is a time and place where justice and the wrath of God manifesting through the Babylonian army, is actually intersecting with the mercy and love of God in redemption of the field at Anathos. None of what was happening right there made sense. It was not logical. It was like the cross, the place where judgment and mercy merge and the result is the first fruits of a brand new creation.

What, God has that kind of power?

And then the Lord answers Jeremiah in verses 26 through really the end of 32 in all of chapter 33. And in his response, the Lord affirms Jeremiah's observation that Israel's history is dominated by rebellion and wickedness. Look what he says in verse 31. Yeah, this city has aroused my anger and wrath from the day it was built to this day so that I will remove it from my sight because of all the evil of the children of Israel and the children of Judah that they did to provoke me to anger their kings and their officials, their priests and their prophets. The men of Judah and the inhabitants of Judah, they participated in behavior so depraved that they offered their children as living sacrifices to demons.

And that has always been the human condition, really. Once we start down the path of sin, eventually we lose who's both the control of where we are and where we are going. And so in verses 31 through 35, the Lord affirms exactly what Jeremiah said. Yeah, they're horrible. And they have earned what is coming to them.

And in something that is mind blowing, verse 36 starts with the words, now therefore.

Human logic requires that what follows now therefore must be an expression of the punishment they deserve since they have done bad thing, bad thing, bad thing. Now, bad thing, bad thing, bad thing will happen.

But that is not what follows.

What follows is this. Now therefore, says the Lord, the God of Israel, concerning this city which you say it is given into the hand of the king of Babylon by sword, by famine, and by pestilence. Behold, I will gather them from all the countries to which I drove them in my anger and my wrath, and in great indignation I will bring them back to this place, and I will make them dwell safely safety. And they shall be my people, and I will be their God. And I will give them one heart and one way that they may fear me forever.

For their own good and for the good of their children after them, I will make with them an everlasting covenant that I will not turn away from doing good to them. And I will put the fear of me in their hearts that they might not turn from me. I will rejoice in doing them good, and I will plant them in this land in faithfulness. And listen what he says right here with all my heart and all my soul.

Did you ever Think of God in terms of having a heart and a soul to give.

I will plant them with all my heart and all my soul. Yeah. Judgment is coming to the Israelites because of their sin, but restoration is coming to them because of my grace.

And there will indeed be a remnant who will return to Judas in 70 years from later and will undertake a building project. But the Lord is referring to is the beauty of the Messianic age.

You know, the Book of Romans. In the Book of Romans, Apostle Paul wrote the following to help us understand God's illogical response to sin, not only to the Jews, but to the nations. Romans 5, verses 20 through 21. He says this. God's law was given so that all people could see how sinful they were.

This is a new living translation, by the way. I think they do a good job at this. But as people sinned more and more, God's wonderful grace became more and more abundant. So just as sin ruled over all the people and brought them death, now God's wonderful grace rules instead, giving us right standing with God and resulting in eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. So back to our beach purchase.

You know, it was. It was never. It was never about having a place at the beach. God's directions to us there. It was about an assignment we have from the Lord.

To impact people for the kingdom.

And if we had not taken that risk of obedience, then we wouldn't have obtained the reward. And the reward is not the money from the sale. The reward will be the words of the Lord when we see him face to face.

And he says to us, well done, my good and faithful servant. Enter into your master's rest.

I have been weepy about this today.

It is a heartbeat of mine to prepare God's people to see him when he returns. And you want to hear him say that to you? I want to hear him say that to me. So let me ask you, what act of faith has the Lord asked you to take that you are holding back on because it doesn't make sense?

What thing do you know in your heart that you are supposed to do, but your head is giving you a hard time about it? And can I tell you, whatever you hear in your heart will never be in conflict with the written word of God. Nothing will ever exalt itself above God's word. But I promise you that whenever God engages with you, it's never simply about the thing. There's always something more that he's pulling you into and wanting to partner with you over about whatever the preposition that goes there.